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Topic: Reconstruction Campaigns (Read 9898 times)

IMO the Reconstruction era after the Great War is one of the most underdeveloped periods in all FreeSpace campaigns. Though there have been some really spectacular campaigns set in the period, such as Homesick or Shrouding the Light, they are too few in number and I believe Reconstruction has some huge potential for the development of campaigns.

We have a lot of information about the period, from the Reconstruction intel entry and the GTVA intel entry. For example, we have the names of several factions including the Luyten New Alliance, Antares Federation, Adhara Coalition and Regulus Syndicate. The potential of confrontations between these factions and the political instability of this period gives us huge amounts of detail into what a war might have been like.

Also, we can't forget the Vasudan reformation. We know the Vasudan Emperor Khonsu II dissolved the Parliament and consolidated the powers of the Emperor. What if some Vasudans viewed him as a dictator attempting a power grab and joined the Parliament? What if some Parliamentary members decided they didn't want to give up their powers? That could give way for a pretty interesting campaign. Let's not forget possible involvement of the Hammer of Light...

There are so many possible campaigns that could base their storylines in this time period. The fact that very few campaigns exist in this time is kinda disappointing. It's pretty clear that Volition intended for us to create campaigns in this time, recognizing the potential of the fanbase after seeing such great campaigns for FS1 like Awakenings and Destiny of Peace. Clearly Volition saw this and decided to give us some information about the period to encourage us to place some campaigns in this time, and increasing the life of FS2. The fact that few campaigns are based on this time period is a real waste of potential.

Not necessarily. We don't know that all these little blocs didn't create ship designs of their own. It's quite possible that they did, but when the GTVA was formed, some of the developed ships (or weapons) weren't up to GTVA standards in some form or other, so they didn't make the cut. That whole section was left wide open for a reason.

As it does happen, I do have a modification in mind for this era in the works. I'm kinda going independant on it at the moment, but that could change.

There isn't a current name or a plot of a kind, but I have done some work on the main stuff already. Mainly, I just have some weapons and ships. Not much, but hey, it is a start.

Originally, I planned on putting the story ten years after the Great War and from the prespective of a pilot in Lamaris. That's where my imagination kinda stops at the moment. Seeing as Luyten 726-8 is next door, I could move it there and maybe develop something that the Luyten New Alliance must face.

If anyone wants to suggest something, that'd be great. Otherwise, I'm not sure what direction I'm gonna take it, and I'd really like to make something in this era.

There's no reason to assume we saw every possible class of ship in FS2 as well. Fighters... maybe, although I doubt anyone'd complain if there were new models, but capships? No way. I mean, as far as I'm concerned there were definitely small carriers during the great war - at the very least there had to be something that the Vasudan used to get fighters between systems prior to the deployment of the typhon, so there's a spot for another Vasudan capship who's existence (if not its nature) is essentially confirmed by canon (given that we know the Vasudans had fighter battles prior to the Typhon's deployment).

I personally think it'd be cool to have a civillian perspective campaign set 5ish years after FS1, maybe 10, where shields wouldn't have filtered down broadly to the civilian market yet and capital ship weapons were in flux (beams being developed, probably flak too). You could make it homesick-esque - focussing on a group of mercs travelling with some kind of carrier, but possibly travelling within in the former GTA/PVE, with a bit more emphasis on the setting in time. No shields, but most of your enemies wouldn't have them either. Shielded enemies would be a serious threat, and any of the militaries would rape you pretty hard.

Hey - you know what'd be cool? Being a privateer - a pirate-for-hire with a licence from, say, the Regulus syndicate to mess with shipping into Adhara. Conflict would most likely take place in Polaris and EP, where they'd probably be fighting a sort of cold war for influence. This would also serve as one historical reason as to how piracy became so established in Epsilon Pegasi, which would tie in nicely with... a certain other campaign.

Thank you for the welcome. It's good being able to mix in with another side of the FS modding community.

I do like the idea of the multi-choice beginning. Of course, it would mean creating multiple campaigns or lots of missions that meet up at some stage for a single campaign. There's lots of possibilities to go around.

I can easily see multiple challenges for any reconstruction era fan. There's several to conquer and solve. All of them are pretty big, as I'm sure you can imagine.

The main one though is what are these factions really like? The names should give hints, but then again, they could be the opposite to what they sound like. EG. The Regulus Syndicate sounds like a roguish mob, but no way to be sure. This is where a lot of imagination is warranted. We do know that some time after the Great War, peaceful existence was restored and the factions eventually becoming merged into the GTVA, but not much else. (Just checking, the alliance was formed in 2345. Gah, I'll have to change the year in my mod.)

I think another main challenge is creating conflicts that have valid reasons or make sense. Apart from territory, I don't really see what they could fight for. But then again, there may be a many great reasons why they might clash with one another. Out of the four, I believe the Regulus Syndicate and the Adhara Coalition are the most likely to compete and have some sort of bloodstained history.

My reasons being, they are two systems apart and positioned on either ends of vital trading systems. You'd think things would be highly tense there, despite the fact that things should be relatively peaceful. I would think things would be in favour of the Adhara Coalition however. Namely for the systems they could control, unless the Syndicate controlled all the north-western systems, but unlikely if the Antares Federation ever wanted to invade Sirius and threaten Regulus itself. The Syndicate would probably only have Polaris as a sytem for keeps where as the Coalition would have Mirfak, Epsilon Pegasi and Procyon A.

Back to solving the challenges in my mod. "Scoots to the private laboratory"

Edit: Just out of curiosity, would it be viable for someone to develop a working prototype of the Prometheus-R cannon before GTVA engineers got to the idea after the formation in 2345? I find it hard to see how any Terran factions would be able to use the original Promtheus after the Great War. As stated in the FS2 Prometheus-R's tech descriptions, all supplies of Argon (needed to work the firing mechanisms of the cannon) were diminished. Unless a solution was made, everyone would be running around purely with Avengers and Banshees, unless they got hold of any secret GTI-tech of course.